Holy Cross Church, Boston, Cathedral in South End, Boston, United States.
Holy Cross Church is a Gothic Revival stone church in Boston's South End neighborhood, featuring pointed arches, a tall tower, and large stained glass windows. The interior is long and narrow, lined with wooden pews and lit by the colored light that filters through the windows along both sides of the nave.
Construction began in the 1860s after the death of Bishop John Fitzpatrick, who had long been a central figure in Boston's Catholic life. The building took decades to complete and eventually became the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Boston before that role later passed to a different church.
Holy Cross Church serves congregations that pray in English, Spanish, and Amharic, as well as groups that celebrate the traditional Latin rite. Visitors who step inside on a Sunday are likely to encounter different communities arriving one after another for their own services.
The church sits in South End, a neighborhood that is easy to navigate on foot from many parts of central Boston. Visiting outside of service times allows a quieter look at the interior without disturbing worshippers.
The church holds a relic of the True Cross, believed to contain a fragment of the cross of Christ, which gives the building its name. This relic was stolen at one point and later recovered, making its presence in the church all the more meaningful to the community.
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